


our gentle ragnarok

by Kuroeia (Empatheia)



Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: Deleted Scenes, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-03-31
Updated: 2008-03-31
Packaged: 2018-10-09 08:21:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10407906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Empatheia/pseuds/Kuroeia
Summary: Staff meeting the night before the apocalypse.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the DGM flashfic comm on LJ.

Cross Marian was late.

 

 _It figures,_ thought Tiedoll wryly to himself. _That man would be late for the apocalypse. Being late for its eve is hardly surprising._

 

Winters Socalo sat with his arms folded thickly on the table across from Tiedoll, glowering at him as if it were his fault their supposed comrade was nowhere to be found.

 

Klaud Nine sat to his right with her legs crossed, fingers picking nervously at the fabric of her uniform.

 

The chair to the left remained obstinately empty.

 

The minutes passed.

 

At last, Winters let out a deep harrumph and stood up. "I'm going to get him," he announced, and stalked out the door.

 

"In one piece!" Tiedoll called after him, suddenly alarmed by images of Cross' mangled corpse — or possibly a bucket containing his unrecognizable remains, knowing Winters — inhabiting his seat at the table.

 

"Are you sure it's wise to let _him_ go?" asked Klaud Nine cynically.

 

"No," answered Tiedoll truthfully, "probably not, but I personally am not volunteering to stop him."

 

Klaud opened her mouth, then prudently shut it and waited with him in silence.

 

A few minutes later, a familiar red-haired figure strolled casually into the room and collapsed with consummate style into the chair on the left. "Where's Winters?" asked Cross casually, pulling a bottle of fine scotch from seemingly nowhere and taking a long pull straight from the neck. He appeared to be well on his way to a truly impressive level of drunkenness despite the early hour. "Lazy bastard, always late for everything."

 

Nine gritted her teeth audibly and reached across the small table to thump him soundly on the head, crushing his rakishly angled black hat.

 

With an air of injured dignity, he removed it and restored it to its usual jaunty state with his fingers. "What was that for?"

 

"Being an idiot," she fired back, crossing her arms in the very image of feminine irritation.

 

Cross wisely shut up.

 

The door blasted off its hinges and skidded across the floor for several feet before coming to a cowed stop.

 

"Cross!" bellowed Winters, thunder-faced, and barrelled across the room towards the alarmed man in question. His Innocence slid down his arms towards his hands.

 

In a flash, Tiedoll and Nine leapt to catch him and prevent the impending rampage written on his face. The Innocence stopped mere inches from his palms and disaster. Tiedoll resisted the urge to bop him on the head and send him to bed without dinner. That happened a lot nowadays, he figured it was probably a result of looking so much older than he was. He saw a fatherly face whenever he looked in the mirror and it made him feel like he ought to act the part.

 

"Sit down, all of you, right this instant," he suggested.

 

Everyone complied, miraculously, and moments later there was a full table of four generals organized and ready for discussion; something which had not happened for quite some time, thanks to Cross Marian's talent for being unfindable for anything remotely resembling a staff meeting.

 

"So, what are we talking about?" slurred Marian in the general direction of the ceiling. "Seems to me we're wasting a perfectly good apocalypse eve sitting around talking when we could be drinking."

 

"Seems to me you're drinking anyways," pointed out Nine acidly.

 

He shrugged. "Tastes better when you're not bored half to death."

 

"Enough, Marian," said Tiedoll testily. "First order of business: I am to brief you on the plan for tomorrow. Upon the Earl's arrival with the army, we are to be stationed in five groups at differing points throughout Headquarters. It is unsure how he will attempt to break our defenses, and likely that he will come with enough numbers to try several methods, so we will be splitting up to cover all major possibilities."

 

"That could backfire," said Winters. "If he levels his entire force at one point and we're split up—"

 

Nine cut him off. "We have the advantage of being on defence. Small numbers of exorcists can defend doorways against large numbers of Akuma. If we miss a way in, though, they won't even need to fight us: they'll just drive us out and pick us off one by one in the open."

 

"General Klaud is correct," Tiedoll agreed. "Komui, Bak, and the delegate from Rome have spent long hours hammering out a battle plan, and I believe it's a good one. If you have any major concerns with it, take them up with the delegate, not me. I plan to follow orders. Anyone want to argue?"

 

Winters growled under his breath, but no one else said anything. Tiedoll breathed a sigh of relief and continued.

 

"Each team will consist of one general and one or two subordinate exorcists. A squad of Finders will act as back up. We have not yet finalized where each team will be positioned; we can talk about that later. First, I want to tell you all who you are paired with."

 

Tiedoll turned to Winters, who was glowering.

 

"I work alone," the axe-faced general said coldly. "I don't want any wimpy goddamned subordinates getting in my way."

 

"I highly doubt you'll have any trouble with your assigned partner," Tiedoll said patiently. "You will be working with Arystar Krory, the vampire. As you know, he is nearly invincible — physically speaking — and will not need rescuing."

 

That was, of course, exactly why he was paired with Winters. Socalo made a point of not protecting anyone, even from himself. If his subordinates got themselves killed in battle, it was his viewpoint that it was their own fault for being too damned weak and that they deserved no pity. Krory would not want it in any case.

 

"Klaud Nine."

 

"Yes, sir," she replied instantly, then caught herself. "I apologize."

 

He smiled. "You have not been a general for very long. Don't worry about it. Moving on: you will be working with Lenalee Lee and Miranda Lotto."

 

"All the girls on one team?" interrupted Cross, horrified. "That's completely unfair."

 

"Shut up, Marian," snapped Nine. "Of course. I assume we will be somewhere near the base of the tower, to protect it structurally with Lotto's ability."

 

"Good thinking," agreed Tiedoll. "I myself will have Noise Marie and Chaozii Han under my command, and we will likely take the roof to take advantage of Marie's ears. Cross—"

 

"My turn?" said Cross. His face drooped somehow into an even deeper level of absolute boredom, as if they were talking about land treaties and food shipments rather than the end of the world. "Oh, happy day. I suppose I have my idiot apprentice to babysit."

 

"Actually, no," Tiedoll contradicted.

 

The other three generals sat up a little despite themselves. This was interesting. No one had even considered Allen working with anyone but his mentor.

 

"No?" echoed Cross, dumbfounded. "What's he doing, then, sandbagging?"

 

Tiedoll resisted the urge to roll his eyes and settled for steepling his fingers and sighing instead. "No, Marian. You will be working with the Bookman and his apprentice. Allen Walker and Kanda Yuu will form a team of their own. I'm sure you've heard this by now, but Walker surpassed the critical point with his Innocence on the Edo mission and is now classed as a general. He is not present at this meeting because we have not yet informed him of his promotion."

 

Klaud Nine gasped. Winters grunted.

 

"You're kidding," drawled Cross after a moment of blank-eyed shock. "You're making that shrimpy, brainless idiot apprentice of mine a general?"

 

"Generals in the Order do not command great numbers of troops," Tiedoll reminded him. "Mostly they are simply asked to carry out missions with greater difficulty levels and to command any exorcists in the area whenever large-scale skirmishes do break out. The only other requirement to being a general is achieving over-limit synchronization with one's Innocence. Allen has already carried out missions of equal difficulty to most of what you yourself are assigned, he has taken control of battle situations on more than one occasion, and he has met the synchronization qualification. He is, by every one of our criteria, a perfectly capable general already. The only difference now is that he'll have a title to go with it."

 

"Madness," muttered Cross, pouring another long stream of scotch down his throat and sneering. "Don't come crying to me when everything goes pear-shaped."

 

"I assure you, none of us are prone to weeping," Tiedoll reminded him waspishly.

 

"That's not true," Winters put in unexpectedly. "Nine over there cries like a child at the drop of a hat."

 

"The death of one's entire team is hardly comparable to a dropped hat," Nine snapped coldly.

 

Winters made an ugly face. "Same difference."

 

Tiedoll held up a hand, interrupting the spat before it could get under way. "Now is not the time. Need I remind you that the Earl of Millennium is going to come through his Ark tomorrow evening with a force of Akuma large enough by his estimation to obliterate all of us, along with all the remaining members of his family? If not for the former Noah Tyki Mikk having such a fortunate soft spot for a couple of our younger exorcists—"

 

"Pervert," muttered Cross, but no one paid any attention.

 

"—we would not have had any notice at all and would likely have lost tomorrow's battle almost instantly."

 

"We're still probably going to lose," Cross pointed out with a lazy wave of the non-scotch-bearing hand. "There's what, thirteen of us left? Even with that tall Noah... whatsisface...."

 

"Tyki Mikk," Tiedoll supplied wearily.

 

"Right, him," Cross continued without missing a beat. "Even with Tyki Mikk — stupid name, if you ask me — on our side, he's just human now, essentially useless. Skinn Bolic and those freaky twins being out of commission is good and all, but the Earl and his scary little girls... Road or something and the cat-girl—"

 

" _Lulubell_ ," corrected Nine, exasperated.

 

"Whatever. Those three plus a good million Akuma—"

 

"Doubtful," interrupted Tiedoll. "Our most generous estimates of the remaining forces the Earl has to command after we destroyed so many of the giant combined Akuma is perhaps ten thousand at most."

 

"— _Whatever_ , against thirteen exorcists — most of which are children, and unfortunately moronic — and a handful of Finders. I repeat: we are probably going to lose."

 

Tiedoll took a deep breath, then let it out and smiled. "Perhaps. Are you planning on running, Cross Marian? It would seem you're good at that."

 

Cross frowned. "Low blow... but no, I'll probably stay here. Someone's got to watch out for that idiot apprentice of mine."

 

"Probably?" echoed Nine.

 

"If you leave, I will find you," grated Winters, "and you will shortly wish you'd stayed put."

 

"Hmm," said Cross, a faintly alarmed expression on his face. "Remind me to kill everything _before_ running away, in that case."

 

"You'll miss the afterparty if you do that," Klaud Nine said, with a smile this time.

 

Tiedoll stood up, cutting off a budding off-topic conversation yet again. "The supervisor will inform us of where he wishes our teams to be positioned first thing tomorrow morning. General Cross, it is recommended that you be awake for that, so I would exercise some moderation with that scotch if I were you."

 

"Moderation is for the weak," muttered Cross, but he capped the bottle — now mostly empty — and stowed it somewhere within the voluminous black folds of his coat. "I'm going to bed. Anyone care to join me? Not you," he said hastily in Winter's direction, resulting in a black scowl and a string of knuckle-crackings, "or you," to Tiedoll, who merely chuckled, "but you, Nina darling, are welcome at any time of the day or night."

 

"Don't call me that," protested Klaud Nine. She rolled her eyes, but could not hide her blush.

 

Tiedoll knew she would likely take him up on that offer.

 

_When did I get so old? Nobody invites me for pre-battle romps anymore. Pity, I could really use one right about now... might be my last chance on God's green earth to have some fun._

 

Cross, true to his word for once in his life, strolled out of the meeting room in the direction of his quarters.

 

Nine took her leave, bowing formally before holding herself to a stately walk out of the chamber with obvious difficulty.

 

Winters simply gave a brief, ill-tempered nod and left at his usual powerful pace.

 

Tiedoll tilted his chair back and stared at the plain stone ceiling high above.

 

The world as they knew it was slated to end tomorrow evening, right around suppertime. He had no idea what to think of that, and even littler idea what to expect from the battle. He wished he'd had a little more time to spend roaming the European and Asian countrysides, drawing everything he saw worth spending ink on... he'd always wanted to visit certain parts of Africa, too, and that seemed sadly out of reach now.

 

_Ah, life. Even when you're long and busy you're still too short._

 

With another sigh — it was starting to become a habit, he'd have to watch that — he stood up and cracked his stiff spine a couple of times until he felt all right to walk. Then he left the room and resolutely did not think about how unlikely it was that he'd ever see that stone ceiling again.

 

In his chambers, the great old mahogany clock against the wall gave a creak and a groan and tolled the bells for midnight. The apocalypse was no longer tomorrow. It was today.

 

Froi Tiedoll went to bed for the last time, alone and comfortless, to count his regrets and his blessings both.

  
**X**


End file.
